Vol. XIV. Xo. 355. 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



387 



( ine bhing one desires e in a museum is 



in. it U display. In -"in.- o ions exhibited 



in the public libraries ol \Y< [n I ism tow ds I hi 



orl to i xplain w] We are 

 thiol i particularly of archa 



ample, < !arib imp] With these il is the 



deductions thai can be drawn from imination 

 rather than their ' 



most, and whenevi r p 3] ould I" s 

 l\ on printed labels 



In a group of islands like the Wesl [ndii - where 



ical inti n st is centred so lai _■■ l\ upon natural 



ts, the museum oughl to be a papular institution. 



Whether it is or aol depends largely upon the ingenuity 



ofthosein charge. The same holds g I in the case 



ofbotanii which maj be regarded asan out-of- 



doors museum of plants The recently issued guide to 

 the Dominica Gardens maj be welcomed in this 

 connexion as an efforl calculated to arouse intelligent 

 and more extended interest in a fine collection of plants. 



GUN-FIRE AND RAINFALL. 



Indisputable argument against a popular belief 

 that gun-fire may have a widespread influence on 

 rainfall is embodied in the following article taken from 

 The Times of December 21, 1914. Even in the West 

 Indies we have heard the view expressed that the 

 recent rainy season was a result of the war: and it 

 is a common belief that the moon influences the 

 weather a matter which is also denied in the course 

 of the following remarks: — 



An impression has arisen in some quarters that the heavy 

 and persistent rains recently experienced in this country [I Ireat 

 Britain] are attributable to abnormal atmospheric disturbances 

 produced by heavy gun firing at the seat of war. The idea 

 is by no means novel, and, like other meteorological myths 

 (such, for instance, as the belief in thunderbolts and the 

 suppi sed influence of the moon upon our weather) it seems to 

 possess a bullet-proof hide ami takes any amount of killing. 

 Al. out four years ago the First Lord of the Admiralty was 

 asked in the House of Commons whether he would instruct 

 the Fleet to carry out their heavy gun practice at some 

 period of the year other than in the middle of harvest time, 

 'when the resultant heavy rain may cause serious loss to the 

 farming community.' A similar suggestion was made at the 

 instance of a member of the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society ol Scotland who, at a meeting of that body, 

 moved that 'the Admiralty be petitioned to discontinue 

 heavy gun tire round the coasts in August and September, 

 when clouds were about' (sic), the speaker adding that 

 ' firing was apt to bring down rain, and at that time of the 

 year fine weather was desirable It may lie said at once 

 that the idea is absolutely without foundation. Experiments 

 made some years ago in America and on the Continent 

 showed that in droughty weather no amount of concussion in 

 the air artificially produced had tin slightest effect in the 

 production of rain. 



At the pi 

 scarcely likes to be] hal it will e dispose 



cherished theory [n spite of ; 



activity, thi 1- for thinkin 



>nt is more violent than it was in the earl ie 

 the war. The spell ol i il :r should, therefore, 



shortly after theoutbreak of hostilities. As 

 a mattet of fact, 1 I 



and September therainfall in the south-east of England was, 



■■ : I I I I 1 : ■ ■ 



1 hough less marked 

 A> an instam e ol reliability 



ing the effect of detonation up ;iinl':i 11. ;i correspond 



drew atten i ■ little-- 



time ago to the fact that at Shoeburyness, where at cert. on 



seasons of the year big gun are being fired almost daily, the 



e annual rainfall is mailer than in any othei part of 



the United Kingdom. 



THE MEASUREMENT OF LOGS OF 



TIMBER. 



In the Agricultural News for July .'5. 1915 (page 220), 

 a formula was reproduced from the Agricultural Gazette of 

 New South Wales which aims at giving as a rough guide 

 to lumber men the number of superficial feet of board 1 inch 

 thick that may be cut from a log. The accuracy of this 

 formula has been questioned by Mr. Henry Harries, of 

 London, and it has been found on examination at this Office 

 that the formula was not correctly stated in the journal 

 from which it was reproduced. The correct expression 

 should be as follows: — 



|\l.-a ngirthoflogi n inches^ x length rf {og - n ^ 



12 



= number of superficial 

 feet. 



Apart from this arithmetical error in expression, 

 Mr. Harries objects on mathematical grounds to the principle, 

 or rather the lack of principle, shown in the operation of 

 multiplying square inches by feet and dividing by twelve to 

 obtain square feet. 



In place of the formula given above, Air. Harries has 

 worked out an expression which is free from mathematical 

 objection, simple, and rather more accurate. This formula 

 may be expressed in the following manner: — 



'To obtain the approximate yield of 1 inch boarding in 

 a log, divide the mean girth in inches by 5 for the number 

 of equivalent boards (b), multiply the result by the length. 

 (1) multiplied into the diameter (in feet to the nearest 

 decimal) (d), for the yield in superficial feet (I ').* 



An example may be given thus: — 



Mean girth of log, 80 inches. Length of log, .'i0 feet. 



Then, bxlxd=f= V' x30x-_>-l 

 = 1,00S 



By the first formula we get: — 



( -,") a x 30 = 1)000 superficial feet ( = fy 



